Ruling: 8 ways 'Redskin' is a slur

In their petition to cancel the six Redskins trademarks, the Native American group pushing the change had to provide evidence that the name was considered disparaging at the time they were registered by the team between 1966 and 1990. Here are some of the examples the group provided to show “redskins” racial connotations during that time period.

1. The plaintiffs cited a number of experts’ reports on linguistics and lexicography, including one expert’s 1990 book that said, “Nearly half of all interracial slurs …refer to real or imagined physical differences. … Most references to physical differences are to skin color, which affirms what we have always known about the significance of color in human relations. Asian groups were called yellow this and that and Native Americans were called redskins, red men, and red devils.”

Story Continued Below

2. Definitions from eight different dictionaries on the term “redskin” between 1967 through 1990 were also included that describe the word as “often offensive” or “slang.”

3. To show the term “redskins” was used in media prior to the late 60s, but since decreased, the group cited a number of references including the 1940 Spencer Tracy film “Northwest Passage,” in which one character says, “Good luck, get a redskin for me.” However, one expert found that in a search for “redskins” TV and newspaper references between 1975 through 1989, there were 136,473 results. Filtering out any football-related terms or food related terms led to a total of only 71 times in which “redskins” was used to refer to a Native American, many of which in the context of a slur.

4. In a similar search of major newspapers, magazines and journals between 1969 and 1996, “redskins” appeared 143,920 times. However, the expert noted that these where “overwhelming to be in the context of sports” and less than 2 percent of results actually were used to describe Native Americans.

5. The group also cited a 1993 resolution by the executive council of the National Congress of American Indians which said the term “redskins” has always been and continues to be derogatory and offensive and its use by the Washington Redskins disparaging.

6. Also cited were 1972 news reports, including one from the Washington Post, which described a meeting between Native Americans and then-president and part-owner of the Redskins Edward Bennett Williams in which objections to the name and calls for it to change were expressed.

7. The group noted 19 letters of petition were sent during the that time period, and excerpted a number of them including one 1993 letter that read, “the continued use of such a derogatory and offensive term is an abomination.”

8. In early promotional material for the team, the team’s dancing group, the Redskinettes also had appeared wearing costumes suggestive of Native Americans, which contained the title “Dancing Indians” and the caption “Here are the Redskinettes all decked out in their Indian garb and carrying Burgundy and Gold pom-poms.”